Police officer disrupted the watch night service of the House of Bethel Ministry located at Anwomaso-High Tension, a suburb of Kumasi and arrested the Head pastor, Reverend Kwame Takyi for excessive noise in the wee hours of last Saturday morning.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Mr Osei Mensah reportedly stormed the church at about 12:30 am, with armed Police officers, and ordered members of the church to halt an ongoing Watch Night Service because of their excessive noise making.

The incident led to the arrest of Reverend Kwame Takyi, who was granted bail later around 8:00 am, according to Citi News.

Justifying the arrest, Mr Osei Mensah, said in an interview with Citi News that bringing in the police to halt the situation was his last resort after the church, ignored his previous warnings and appeared to have increased the noise levels in an apparent act of defiance.

"Several times [about the noise levels]. Yesterday [Friday], around midnight, they were making a lot of noise. I entered the church and I told them the level of the noise was too high.”

He said the congregants numbering about 30 could not understand the reason why he was complaining about the noise which was disrupting his sleep.

“The moment after I warned them and left, it [the noise] became even worse. Maybe I annoyed them so they rather increased the volume and I had no other option but to report them to the police,” Mr Osei Mensah stated.

However, the Secretary of the House of Bethel Ministry, Stephen Osei is disputing the claims of the regional Minister claiming he has been aware of their programme which is held on last Friday of every month.

"At a point, the police felt the noise that was going on wasn’t something that could disrupt the place because it is a programme we do every last Friday of the month. He [the Regional Minister] has always been here with us and this time, we felt surprised this thing was going on.” he explained.

“Normally what we do is that, by 1:30 AM, we leave the microphone to the pastor to preach, and by then, we mute we everything in the room. People are not allowed to sing in the room,” he added.

source:http://www.pressnewsng.com.ng/2017/11/armed-police-officer-disrupt-vigil.html

wahala

True na.
All dz churches and mosques sabi annoy pesin wit dere noise. Especially dz ori oke pipul. Na everyday be dere vigil including Sunday and Monday

not here in Nigeria. noise everywhere

cc lalasticlala

Proactive community policing.

“The moment after I warned them and left, it [the noise] became even worse. Maybe I annoyed them so they rather increased the volume and I had no other option but to report them to the police,” Mr Osei Mensah stated.

Mr. Osei you did the right thing and very commendable. Someone can confused a church congregation to a disco theatre this days.
They keep disturbing the whole neighbourhood and dare not to speak or complain, because they will quickly tagged you as a devil agent trying to disrupt their party.
The question is did Jesus christ use all these amplifiers during sermon? And disco dance?

For my street alone almost seven churches dey operate...one building even have two churches on the first and second floor....so u can imagine the kind of noise pollution man pikin dey suffer


Ghana police una do well..not like ur counterparts here

quite unfortunate those who teach about loving your neighbour as yourself don't follow the scripture. vigils can still hold without too much of noise that'll disturb the sleep of their neighbours resting after a long day at work.

.

Am in support of d police.... While would dey disturb d peace of oda people at night...

Africa is a funny continent

This should be implemented ASAP in Nigeria, these useless pastors and Imams think they own the world, they would put their speakers outside the church and start making noise, they don't even care if there are people suffering from insomnia, depression, cancer, malaria etc within their vicinity, there are 11 churches in my street of less than 100 meters and I'm always scared of going home on Friday

I so much dislike noise pollution. Its unnecessary to use microphone for night vigils or beat drums heavily, night is meant for sleep. if you are going to observe night vigil, do it in such a way that will not disturb others.

Chai pastor? I will keep you

Very good. These pastors always think they are above the law....

Especially those ones preaching I university campuses with their noisy mega phones

bhhh

Churches shld not be situated in residential areas but in naija everything is jagajaga!

I don't respect churches who disturb their neighborhood with careless abandon. You don't care about how your neighbor feels is plain callous. Doesn't speak well if your church. That's how a church sharing the same block with me uses an amplifier that's so loud that it sometimes causes the walls of the house to vibrate. This is a small church with less than fifteen members. There's absolutely no need for a microphone. But they use it anyway not even minding the fact that it's a students Lodge. This crack down should also begin in Nigeria. Noise is one of the reasons the rate of insanity is on an all time high in this country

I can relate to the noise

The C and S church that is directly opposite my house always hold vigils every friday, they never miss.

Imagine the hell i live thru every friday.

Organized society

why the hell would you be making noise in the dead of the night when everyone are trying to sleep..later you wonder why we have new atheist everyday..

Iyanu ma sele ....

lolz

Churches and mosques shouldn't be situated in residential areas, imagine working hard all day only for some religious psychopaths to disturb ur sleep. Nigerian government really need to look into this.

Lomprico2:
Churches shld not be situated in residential areas but in naija everything is jagajaga!

pls o where should they nw be situated?? useless talk

IamMissMarvel:
The C and S church that is directly opposite my house always hold vigils every friday, they never miss.

Imagine the hell i live thru every friday.

You can relocate or report them if you reside in lagos.

Bukolar1:
quite unfortunate those who teach about loving your neighbour as yourself don't follow the scripture. vigils can still hold without too much of noise that'll disturb the sleep of their neighbours resting after a long day at work.

I've been praying for our Senate to implement a noise bill on churches and mosques, most of them are nuisances

There is a mosque on my street that I wonder what to do to them every 5am.

There are mosques everywhere in England. You never know when they call for prayers. Same in Turkey.

Here I can't sleep because someone is about to pray

charain:


You can relocate or report them if you reside in lagos.

I live in Abuja o.